Critics Go Silent As Ymca For East Orange Wins Approval

Nearby Residents Think The Fitness Center Will Bring Noise And Traffic To Quiet Blanchard Park Near The Little Econ.

December 17, 1997|By Cory Lancaster of The Sentinel Staff

Residents tried for months to derail plans to build a YMCA in an east Orange park, but they were silent Tuesday when the project received final county approval.

County commissioners voted Tuesday to sign a 50-year lease with the Central Florida YMCA and contribute $1.9 million toward the new fitness center in Blanchard Park.

The approval clears the way for the YMCA to begin designing the center, targeted to open in spring 1999.

Hundreds of residents attended meetings about the plan last summer, and some complained it would bring too much noise and traffic to their sleepy, natural park. Only three residents showed up for Tuesday's vote and none spoke at the meeting. Afterward, two said they figured the approval was a done deal.

''My whole neighborhood is still against it,'' said Chris Logue, 18, who sat quietly in the back of the meeting with his father. ''I've lived right on the park for 18 years. I hate to see something like this built.''

But commissioners, who spent almost an hour debating the details of the lease, said they worked hard to resolve the residents' concerns.

Commissioners, for example, demanded to have more say over who serves on a YMCA advisory board that will recommend activities and fees for the fitness center. And they said they want the park's playground to be moved and open to residents while the fitness center is being built.

''I don't want to get any more flak out there (from residents), where we said something and we didn't do it,'' said Commissioner Mary Johnson, whose district covers the park.

The county and the YMCA will make the suggested changes to the lease and contract in the next few weeks, and then give them to the county chairman to sign.

That will commit the county to the partnership, although commissioners still will have some say over the center's design, which will be similar to - but smaller than - the Downtown Orlando ''Y'' on Mills Avenue, according to the contract.

Commissioners called the Blanchard Park ''Y'' a good deal for residents. The fitness center will take up only 4 acres of the park's 130 acres, half of which encompass wetlands and the Little Econ River, they said.

No tax dollars will be spent to operate and maintain the fitness center, and the YMCA will provide 5,000 square feet of space inside for community meetings and other public uses.